‘Hollywood Demonizes Chinese’

You may know about China’s 20-foreign-movie-limit-a-year regulation that allows only 20 foreign movies to run theatrically in China. This rule for some reason, stumps the world on why there is so much movie piracy in China – if you can’t see it legally how else can you see movies?

Xinhua said Chow’s time on the screen in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” had “been slashed in half by censors in China for vilifying and defacing the Chinese.”

The version of the Hollywood blockbuster released in China earlier this week shows only about 10 minutes of Chow’s scenes compared with 20 minutes in the version seen in the rest of the world, it said.

Xinhua quoted Zhang Pimin, deputy head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, as saying the decision to cut the scenes was made according to China’s “relevant regulations on film censorship” and “China’s actual conditions.”

He refused to give specific reasons for the cuts, but Xinhua quoted a Chinese magazine, Popular Cinema, as saying the scenes were cut because of the negative images they showed.

“The captain starring Chow is bald, his face heavily scarred, he also wears a long beard and has long nails, images still in line with Hollywood’s old tradition of demonizing the Chinese,” the magazine said.

Huh? Yes, this is the reason for censorship in the Mainland. Not explicit sex or violence or even anti-Communist sentiments its because all Chinese pirates should look as handsome as possible. They must think that Jack Sparrow is the perfect Caucasian specimen. Oh well, the movie still broke records and took in $1.3 million on its first day so I guess no one is really complaining except us.